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Privacy Is Not a Barrier to Trade
June 4, 2015
By Margot E. Kaminski
Sen.Elizabeth Warren tried to stop the Senate from approving "Fast Track" trade rules.
Above, Warren speaks on May 12, 2015, in Washington.
Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images.
"On Wednesday, WikiLeaks released the draft text of the biggest international agreement you’ve probably never heard of: the Trade in Services Agreement, or TISA. And buried in one of the 12 leaked chapters (which are mostly on things like “air transport services” and “competitive delivery services”) is a volatile and crucial debate about online privacy and the global Internet.
Free trade agreements now regulate the Internet, determining digital policies across borders and around the world. TISA in particular addresses digital privacy, a critical issue at home and abroad. Yet the negotiations are not being held in a normal venue for discussing human rights or even ordinary law. TISA, like other trade agreements, is negotiated through a byzantine, readily corruptible process known as “fast track,” which Congress is about to renew. It is unacceptable for a professed democracy to address issues of this magnitude without meaningful public accountability.
Trade agreements used to focus on things like tariffs, but they aren’t just about trade anymore. They consist of hundreds of chapters of detailed regulations, on subjects ranging from textiles to intellectual property law. TISA purports to promote fair and open global competition in services, thus increasing jobs. (You may have also heard about the Trans-Pacific Partnership, another trade agreement currently being negotiated and criticized. This one’s even more mammoth.) TISA is being negotiatedbetween 23 countries representing some 75 percent of the global services market. Buried in its e-commerce annex are rules that will reshape the relationship between the free flow of information and online privacy."
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http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2015/06/trade_in_services_agreement_could_change_the_global_internet.html